Barb Stahl: Biocentric Landscapes

WELCOME to the Indy Arts Studio Series, where you will find behind-the-scenes information such as raw footage from conversations with featured artists, details about artwork development, artist bios, the show at-a-glance, and other details on the opening of their exhibition in Gallery 924 at the Arts Council.

In this latest work, Stahl explores the boundaries between the abstract and non-objective; suggesting naturalistic objects such as landscapes, but not fully defining them. Through crosshatched drip patterns, Stahl symbolizes the cosmic thread: the connectivity that unites all matter in the universe, including us. The thread patterns form a grid that weave in and out of the painting bringing forth landscapes and other abstracted imagery. Each piece is created in a stream-of-consciousness process featuring both fine brush strokes and bold expressive use of color which show her technical and instinctual sides.

Stahl’s work is inspired by concepts found in physics, sacred geometry, and often plays with the golden ratio in size relationships:

Stahl’s work is influenced by principles of Biocentrism – the theory that life and biology are central to being, reality, and the cosmos. Consciousness creates the universe rather than the other way around.

In many places her work is ambiguous and leaves room for individual interpretation; observer interaction. “It is this act of observing, of seeing something in the work, you can’t un-see something, that I find analogous to the wave function collapse that occurs in the famous double slit experiment when particles of light are observed.” The double slit experiment is one that very elegantly demonstrates how observation affects quantum systems. It is the basis and inspiration for the first principle of Biocentrism.

I Had a Dream I Was Back in the Rainforest and There I Met the Nine of Hearts, Oil on canvas, 2015

Stahl is also known for commercial and public artworks which have been fixtures in Indianapolis for many years. Murals, community engagement projects, and the larger-than-life Pacers schedule wall she hand paints every year have been seen by thousands. The IndyStar took time to interview Stahl about her work with the Pacers:

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